Search Results

Glacial Dramas: Typos, Projections, and Peer Review in the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Jessica O’Reilly

in Climate Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives on Climate Change

This chapter examines two different controversies surrounding the IPCC Fourth Assessment report: one arising from a typographical error in the discussion of the Himalayan glacier melt projection, the ... More

This chapter examines two different controversies surrounding the IPCC Fourth Assessment report: one arising from a typographical error in the discussion of the Himalayan glacier melt projection, the other from the exclusion of dynamical processes from the proffered sea level rise projections. O’Reilly analyzes the chain of citations that each reference—there are thousands in an IPCC report—travelled through, and considers how “trust in numbers” (Porter 1995) compares with “trust in scientists” (Shapin 1995). This paper argues that the IPCC assessment report, though peer reviewed, occasionally contains “casual numbers.” This raises a critique of phenomenon of assessment itself, suggesting that it moves from a scientific project to one of auditing and accountability.Less

Control + Alt + Retreat

Orrin H. Pilkey, Linda Pilkey-Jarvis, and Keith C. Pilkey

in Retreat from a Rising Sea: Hard Choices in an Age of Climate Change

A summary of what's to come in the book.

Coastal Adaptations to the Northern Gulf of Maine and Southern Scotian Shelf

Matthew W. Betts, David W. Black, Brian Robinson, Arthur Spiess, and Victor D. Thompson

Leslie Reeder-Myers, John A. Turck, and Torben C. Rick (eds)

in The Archaeology of Human-Environmental Dynamics on the North American Atlantic Coast

The northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) and its watershed have attracted humans for the last 12,500 years (cal BP), and evidence of Palaeoindian marine economies is well established in adjacent regions by ... More

The northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) and its watershed have attracted humans for the last 12,500 years (cal BP), and evidence of Palaeoindian marine economies is well established in adjacent regions by ca. 8000 cal BP. Sea level rise (SLR) has obscured understandings of early coastal adaptations, although underwater research and some near-shore sites are providing important insights. The earliest evidence from surviving shell middens dates to ca. 5000 cal BP, and reveals that shellfish collecting and the seasonal exploitation of benthopelagic fish were important throughout the Late Maritime Archaic and Maritime Woodland periods. However, significant economic shifts have occurred. In particular, a Late Archaic focus on marine swordfish hunting was replaced by a dramatic increase in inshore seal hunting in the Maritime Woodland period. After ca. 3100 cal BP, inshore fishing for cod, flounder, sculpin, sturgeon and other species intensified. During the Late Maritime Woodland period, shellfish exploitation declined somewhat and the hunting of small seals, and, in some areas, white-tailed deer, increased sharply. The extent and nature of coastal economies in the NGOM was controlled, in part, by SLR, increasing tidal amplitude, and concomitant changes in surface-water temperatures, in tandem with broad regional cultural shifts.Less

Maritime Cultural Landscapes in the New York Bight

Daria Merwin and Victor D. Thompson

Leslie Reeder-Myers, John A. Turck, and Torben C. Rick (eds)

in The Archaeology of Human-Environmental Dynamics on the North American Atlantic Coast

The study of prehistoric maritime cultural landscapes, in the broadest sense, seeks to explore the relationship between people and the water. If we are to reconstruct the nature of this relationship ... More

The study of prehistoric maritime cultural landscapes, in the broadest sense, seeks to explore the relationship between people and the water. If we are to reconstruct the nature of this relationship over time along the Atlantic coast of North America, we must account for environmental changes, particularly sea level rise and related shifts in ecological communities and habitats on the shore and at sea. This chapter surveys the coastal archaeology of the New York Bight (the bend in the Atlantic coast between southern New Jersey and Cape Cod) over the course of the Holocene, drawing data from terrestrial, coastal plain, and now submerged sites to examine topics such as the role of coastal environments in human settlement, evidence for seafaring and fishing technology, and the origins and consequences of adopting maritime cultural adaptations.Less

Salt Marshes: A Disappearing Act

Catherine Owen Koning, Sharon M. Ashworth, and Catherine Owen Koning

in Wading Right In: Discovering the Nature of Wetlands

The consequences of saltmarsh destruction and restoration are brought to bear in the story of Pine Creek Marsh. Pine Creek Marsh was cut off from tidal influence, which led to a cascade of plant and ... More

The consequences of saltmarsh destruction and restoration are brought to bear in the story of Pine Creek Marsh. Pine Creek Marsh was cut off from tidal influence, which led to a cascade of plant and animal disappearances and unintended problems, including flooding, for the surrounding human community. The subsequent restoration of tidal influence corrected many issues, reversed vegetation changes, and served as a model for ecosystem repair along the coastline. The mystery of marsh die-off along the New England coast provides another opportunity to examine salt marsh ecology and trophic cascades as scientists study the interactions among cordgrass, crabs, and crab predators. The impacts of climate change are made apparent as sea level rises and scientists seek to develop models for future flood prediction, carbon storage, and marsh protection.Less

Epilogue: 2000–2012

John Waldman

in Heartbeats in the Muck: The History, Sea Life, and Environment of New York Harbor, Revised Edition

Though there have been many improvements, New York Harbor still faces many problems. Among them are climate change, sea level rise, alien species, combined sewer overflows, and lingering chemical ... More

Though there have been many improvements, New York Harbor still faces many problems. Among them are climate change, sea level rise, alien species, combined sewer overflows, and lingering chemical contamination. But the health of the Harbor continues to be protected to an unprecedented degree, and it also is being used for novel hands-on education programs.Less

Paleocoastal Landscapes, Marginality, and Early Human Settlement of the California Islands

Amy E. Gusick and Jon M. Erlandson

in An Archaeology of Abundance: Reevaluating the Marginality of California's Islands

If the California Islands were marginal for human settlement, why were several of them occupied more or less continuously since Terminal Pleistocene or Early Holocene times? The earliest human ... More

If the California Islands were marginal for human settlement, why were several of them occupied more or less continuously since Terminal Pleistocene or Early Holocene times? The earliest human history of California's Islands is clouded by sea level rise, coastal erosion, dune building, and differential research intensity. Nonetheless, Paleocoastal sites are abundant on the Northern Channel Islands and Cedros Island, suggesting that they were optimal habitat for early hunter-gatherers, with ample food, freshwater, mineral, and other resources to sustain permanent settlement. Worldwide on islands where late Pleistocene or early Holocene human colonization occurred, climate shifts and massive landscape changes caused by postglacial sea level rise require detailed reconstructions of paleogeography and paleoecology to assess the potential productivity or marginality of islands or archipelagos.Less

Geoarchaeology Underwater and Its Challenges: An Example from Florida

Ervan G. Garrison

in New Directions in the Search for the First Floridians

This chapter examines, in detail, the Geoarchaeological methods for both predicting and interpreting sites subjected to anthropogenic activities and taphonomic processes specific to inundated ... More

This chapter examines, in detail, the Geoarchaeological methods for both predicting and interpreting sites subjected to anthropogenic activities and taphonomic processes specific to inundated contexts. Garrison and Hale show that sediment particle-size, grain-size, and point-count studies coupled with debitage/micro-debitage analyses isolate middens deposits from those of natural origin. Chemical, faunal (primarily vertebrate), and floral proxies for anthropogenic activities were lacking, but they related the nature on inundated sites in a marine environment. The authors discuss how sea-level rise is coupled with these factors.Less